cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7699401

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/29285

A fossil on display at Montana State University's Museum of the Rockies reveals how dinosaurs in the Tyrannosaurus genus may have subdued prey, and the specimen is the focus of a new collaborative research publication between scientists at MSU and the University of Alberta in Canada. The giant carnivorous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus roamed the region that is now Montana at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, about 66 million years ago. It lived alongside other large dinosaurs, including plant-eaters like Triceratops and the duck-billed Edmontosaurus.

In 2005, a nearly complete Edmontosaurus skull was found in the Hell Creek Formation of eastern Montana on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The skull is now housed in the paleontology collection at Museum of the Rockies, and it contains a telling detail: lodged inside its face is the tooth of a tyrannosaur.

Now on display in the museum's Hall of Horns and Teeth, the skull became the focus of a collaboration between University of Alberta doctoral student Taia Wyenberg-Henzler and Museum of the Rockies' Curator of Paleontology John Scannella. The results of their research are published in the journal PeerJ.

"Although bite marks on bones are relatively common, finding an embedded tooth is extremely rare," said Wyenberg-Henzler. "The great thing about an embedded tooth, particularly in a skull, is it gives you the identity of not only who was bitten but also who did the biting. This allowed us to paint a picture of what happened to this Edmontosaurus, kind of like Cretaceous crime scene investigators."

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